Chess Story

An amazing little book about a narrator who is traveling by ship and discovering a world champion at chess is aboard. Several passengers challenge him in matches, but all fail, until a mysterious passenger helps even the odds. The myserious passenger is revealed to be Dr. B and had vowed to never play the game again, and we learn his story of confinement and isolation by the Gestapo, where his only freedom was a stolen chess book that he obsessed over to the point he was playing chess in his mind against himself.

Dr. B’s story develops into a central theme in the book, which is the concept of the mind being both a prison and a place of freedom.

“…nothing on earth puts more pressure on the human mind than nothing…”

It expands upon that with obsession and the madness of the split self. Which is reflected in the game of chess, something Dr. B became obsessed with, and the starkness of opposing sides on the chess board of black and white.

This short book packs a lot of punch. It’s amazing how much Zweig can tell us in such a small amount of pages. As a reader, you don’t feel the need to know more as if it’s unfinished. The book sets itself up and delivers by the end, something many novellas and short stories fail to.

After reading this, I’ve been tempted to read more Stefan Zweigg and cannot wait until I get my hands on some more books by him.